Mobile operators appear to have conflicting views on the topical issue of whether content providers should contribute to network costs, and how such a move could be implemented, according to a new video available exclusively on Mobile World Live. The video has been published just a few days after O2 UK’s CEO Ronan Dunne was reported to have said that the operator wants the flexibility to charge content providers for using its network, as well as end users: “If consumers alone are paying, it’s hard to see where the incentive is for content providers to use networks efficiently,” Dunne was reported by ZDNet as telling attendees at the Westminister eForum event in London last week. Indeed, some sectors of the mobile industry have for some time been arguing that the likes of Google need to dip into their profits to help with capacity-induced network costs.

On the new Mobile World Live video, Vivek Dev, director of innovation with Telefonica, O2 UK’s parent, says: “In a way, it is in the interest of the content providers to find a solution because if the networks are full, the people who suffer first will be the content providers because they work on different business models. People won’t be able to access what they are trying to sell.” Vodafone’s public policy director, Richard Feasey, isn’t so sure, noting that setting up a tollgate is not “a sustainable or a desirable position,” but Feasey does suggest operators should be able to set up new propositions on top of the traditional internet model. Meanwhile Mattias Hertzman, EVP and chief strategy and performance officer with Russian mobile operator Beeline, predicts that a move by the mobile industry towards tiered pricing will impact the issue. “As we do that we are going to get a very healthy dynamic together with the content providers because there will be an economic interest from the content providers to actually optimise bandwidths.” View the video in full here.